Thursday, September 10, 2009

How Twitter messages work when you use @

First, imagine a fictional family where everyone follows each other on Twitter: @Mom, @Dad, @Brother and @Sister.
1. The basics
Rule #1: A person must follow you before you can DM them. If @Mom and @Dad (fictional example names) want to write completely privately so no one will see what they write but each other, they have to DM each other.
Rule #2: Anytime you put an @someone anywhere in a tweet, it will be sent to that @someone, regardless of whether they follow you or not.


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10 comments:

  1. Thank you for a well written, concise article.

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  2. well that cleared up a few questions I had wondered about...
    thanks
    chris

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  3. This is the clearest explanation of this I've found. Thanks so much! I'll be retweeting it, and sharing it with my colleagues.

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  4. Very clear explanation.

    One other tidbit... even if someone has their Tweets 'protected and private', if you do a search on '@Privatetweeter'sName' it'll pull up ALL (public) people's mentions to that person, thus a particular conversation with those people and that 'private tweeter' can often be figured out, just by all the comments that public people are tweeting to the private one.

    So yes, tweets are VERY Public. :)

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  5. Okay, maybe I'm reading this too late at night - after a long day (my disclaimer). By the time I got to #5, you lost me. I'll come back and read this later and if I still can't grasp it.....I will have some questions.

    I keep reinforcing that I speak Twitter - I basically need to get it in the first 140 characters.

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  6. Perfect explanation. Everyone should read this!

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  7. Still confused. What is difference btwn .@ or just @??? I know both reach my party but what's the difference?

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  8. I'm still lost...sorry.

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  9. You explained it all........Thanks!

    NickG136

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